By Dana White
from this link-
http://www.baylor.edu/Lariat/news.php?action=story&story=19654
Dr. Yifa, a Buddhist nun, made a vow to 'enlighten all sanctioned beings' in a prayer at Dr. Marc Ellis' home Monday evening before dinner, at the end of the third annual conference for the Center for American and Jewish studies.
The event was the breaking of the Yom Kippur fast. Yom Kippur is the Jewish Day of Atonement, a day of fasting, prayer and introspection where forgiveness is sought from man and God.
'The center and I are glad to have a Buddhist scholar and religious person of her stature at our conference,' said Ellis, a professor of American and Jewish studies. 'We have had Jews, Christians, Muslims and now a Buddhist; it's important to continue to engage diversity to better understand the world around us.'
Yifa, an ordained Buddhist nun who holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from Yale University, is a visiting scholar at Harvard University. Yifa has received many honors both in her native Taiwan and in the United States.
Rabbi Paula Reimers, another of the conference's featured speakers, introduced Yifa while reflecting on the occasion offered by Yom Kippur to urge those in attendance to examine their country's role in world politics.
Yifa spent the evening explaining basic Buddhist concepts to a group of more than 30 students and discussing her book, Safeguarding the Heart ä a Buddhist Response to Suffering and September 11.
The book, according to Yifa, is a Buddhist voice from a tradition that promotes self-examination to find the ways in which people, as a nation or individually contributed to the problem.
'You need to train yourself in ordinary times,' Yifa said. 'You need to safeguard your heart. Your getting angry is not going to help.'
Illustrating this point, Yifa told a story about discovering the window of her new car being smashed.
'I lost the window,' she said. 'I cannot lose my mind. From that moment, I never get angry.'
Yifa said she is 'concerned with the American ego. We say we are a super power country â The reason America is healthy and strong is the people who come from all over the world.'
'We claim this as our own. We need to be appreciative,' Yifa said.
An earlier session of the conference featured two Palestinian speakers discussing the injustices and the atrocities they experienced as a result of the Jewish occupation and recent uprisings in Israel.
Ellis said the Center for American and Jewish Studies is one of the few places in the country where Palestinians are able to uninterruptedly share their stories.
Yifa said these personal testimonies she heard this weekend affected her most.
'They helped me to reflect on conflict in the world, in Jerusalem, the U.S. and Iraq, fanatics and terrorists,' she said.
Yifa advocated avoiding the 'vicious circle of violence.' She said she believed that the terrorists' attacks were 'not isolated, it has to do with the past. I think it deals with the Israel issue.'
'As long as someone hates America, we can have a second bin Laden. We need to go to the source of the problem,' Yifa said. 'We need to educate ourselves from this event.'
Ellis said this education was part of the center's vision to engage the world from different religious perspectives to inform about diversity in order to better understand our own faith.
Weston Smith, a Seagraves senior, said he looked forward to further discussions.
'I was really excited to see a Buddhist nun visiting Baylor. There is a lack of communication between Asian religions and Christianity, especially here in Texas,' Smith said.
Yifa described her experience at the conference as 'a good education.' She said she found the students of Baylor to be 'much more open than [she] expected, more mature and much more friendly.'
No comments:
Post a Comment